Influence

Web Software + New Toilets = Solve Global Health Problems

nospam@example.com (David Strelneck) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:10:15 -0400

I'm in a meeting right now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where a small group of social entrepreneurs is conspiring to revolutionize the world: they plan to combine new software design and new toilet designs to bring clean sanitation to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

As targeted by the Millenium Development Goals, over two billion people suffer disease, water pollution, and economic woes because of inadequate sanitation. And promising solutions in some cultures and economies are inhibited from scaling larger because producing appropriate toilets takes time. Especially if we're talking millions and millions of locally appropriate toilets!

But this group of entrepreneurs gathered in Thailand this week, sponsored by Ashoka, has a new idea: Start producing the toilet components centrally at a huge scale rather than in scattered places around the world. Then use the web to give local groups in any country access to this single global source, through a single portal or marketplace. The massive global demand channeled through a single web marketplace will justify entrepreneurial investment in the huge volume, high quality, low cost supply side to begin with.

Mr. Jack Sim of Singapore, founder of the World Toilet Organization, and Mr. Hamzah Harun Al'Rasyid of Indonesia, will carry on these discussions during World Water Week August 17-23 in Stockholm, and Ashoka will help develop the idea further. It is an exciting prospect for the health of hundreds of millions of people around the planet, and an exciting example the powerful role the web can play in changing approaches to global problem solving.

A Beautiful Day in Our Neighborhood

nospam@example.com (Andrew Cohen) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:17:12 -0400

The Alexandria Times, our local neighborhood paper, included a nice mention of Forum One in their August 7-13 issue. The article, High Tech Here at Home, points out that our little neighborhood of Del Ray is home to a number of high tech firms. Del Ray is the area of north of Old Town Alexandria where we've owned our building since 2000.

As per the Alex Times story:

The neighborhood is also home to Forum One Communications, which plans and develops Web sites for nonprofit and public organizations.

The company, with about 35 employees, was founded 12 years ago by graduates of Harvards Kennedy School of Government. Forum One quickly attracted a broad base of prestigious clients, including the African Wildlife Foundation, the EPA and the American Academy of Pediatrics, for whom the company develops informative and interesting Web sites.

Andrew Cohen, a project director, said that he is happy the firm operates in Del Ray. "We enjoy the nice mix of residential and businesses on Mount Vernon Ave.," he said. We feel like we're part of a community here."

He didn't put this in the article, but I also told the reporter that when you visit nearby businesses you frequently meet workers and patrons who know someone on our staff. A number of our staff live right here in the neighborhood and walk to work. It's a good place to live and make one's livelihood.

Conservation International - Live Interview with Primate Expert Mike Hoffman Aug 5 1 PM EST

nospam@example.com (Chris Wolz) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:17:54 -0400

Conservation International is hosting another of its "CI Live Discussions" today, Aug 5, at 1 PM EST with primate expert Michael Hoffman to discuss

Primates: Saving the Species: Around the world, primates are coming under increasing pressure. They are threatened by the illegal wildlife trade, the bushmeat economies, habitat loss and disease. Join us as we discuss what is being done to save the species.

You can submit questions and view answers during the live interview, or submit your questions in advance, and also check questions and answers *after* the event, all at http://discuss.conservation.org/

The "CI Live Discussions" use Forum One's very cool LiveInterviewsOnline service.

conservation international

2008 AIDS Conference Kicked off Yesterday, Lots of Online Services

nospam@example.com (Suzanne Rainey) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:01:01 -0400

The XVII International AIDS Conference kicked off yesterday in Mexico City and will last through the week. To most, it's the premiere event on HIV/AIDS worldwide and it occurs every two years. I was fortunate to attend in 2002 when it was in Barcelona, Spain and our Chairman Jim Cashel attended in 2004 in Beijing. I recall at the time that the online offerings that we would have hoped would accompany the actual event were rather meager, and I'm happy that they have stepped up their online offerings quite a bit for those of us who cannot attend. Some interesting features on the web site include:

Ask a question to a moderator of a session in advance
Webcasts (live and archived) of the major sessions and press conferences from the Kaiser Network
A nice, interactive, action-oriented site for youth
A fairly extensive media center with fact sheets, speaker bios, a high res photo library, etc. (In my opinion this is all critical because I definitely notice a surge in coverage of the AIDS pandemic during this event, and this is so crucial in terms of reaching the general public and keeping the issue in front of us despite our own challenges.)

On the other hand, I'm a bit perplexed about a link on their main navigation that takes you to what looks like a nice community site called 'Global Village'. At first this sounds fantastic...but it's all Spanish. Maybe some of you will be able to benefit from this more than me.

I'd love to hear from any of you who are attending the event this year!

Bill Clinton's new 'Trip to Africa' blog

nospam@example.com (Suzanne Rainey) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:46:05 -0400

I'm watching with interest th Clinton Foundation's new blog about Bill Clinton's trip through Africa last week, during which he visited some of the programs his foundation is spearheading. He's about to speak now at the 2008 International AIDS Conference and I look forward to some live posts from that event. I hope he renames this blog and continues to post his other travels and activities here--it would be interesting to see firsthand what the foundation is doing from this perspective.

Who is Using Open Education to Support Global Health? Are You?

nospam@example.com (Dave Witzel) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:23:16 -0400

In September the Clinton Global Initiative will host its flagship meeting in New York. Since it was started in 2005 by former President Bill Clinton, CGI has mobilized almost 300 commitments from its members valued at over $2 billion.

This year CGI is interested in commitments focused on the nexus of education and global health, two of the four focus areas. We're helping them look, particularly for projects that are being planned or are recently underway, that use open education (OER) approaches to support global health. Are you involved in a project like this or know of one? If so, please let me know via email (dwitzel@forumone.com) or phone (+1 571 641 3029).

All help greatly appreciated!

Web Strategy Homework: Some Fun Examples to Explore

nospam@example.com (Chris Wolz) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:19:50 -0400

We are doing a web strategy workshop with a client this week, to help them explore what are some possible ways they can use the web to be more effective. (The approach to web strategy that we find valuable is to base it on a mission-driven, audience-centric approach. To get there we follow an approach outlined here. )

As part of the session, I am posting here a listing of examples I often use of different web strategies. We often ask clients to review a list like this and come prepared to discuss:

- What are these organization trying to accomplish?
- Who are they trying to engage online?
- Why will their target audience bother coming back to this site a 2nd time, a 22nd time?
- How is their web strategy going to help the organization be more successful?

These examples are interesting for varied reasons:

The Nature Conservancys Jonathon Colman on Digg:
http://digg.com/users/burkinaboy/history.rss and http://digg.com/users/burkinaboy

Gapminder: Sustainable global development through statistics
Watch: http://www.gapminder.org/video/gap-cast/gapcast-10---energy.html

Changemakers; Open Sourcing Social Solutions http://changemakers.net/en-us/competitions

TED: Ideas worth spreading http://www.ted.com/

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov

The World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/

CARMA: Carbon Monitoring for Action http://www.carma.org

ProCon.org http://deathpenalty.procon.org/viewanswers.asp?questionID=1038

The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/

Center for Global Development / Blogs http://cgdev.org/section/opinions/blogs/

National Rifle Association http://www.nra.org/home.aspx

ProFootballTalk! http://www.Profootballtalk.com

Oceana /Ocean Heros http://community.oceana.org/heroes

Center for Fire Research and Outreach http://firecenter.berkeley.edu/

Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/east-asia/china/

Please share ideas about these, suggestions for other innovative web strategy examples - thanks!

Chris

Chess photo courtesy of gabork / flickr

InterAction seeks intern for social networking

nospam@example.com (Suzanne Rainey) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:11:29 -0400

InterAction the largest coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focused on the worlds poor and most vulnerable people is seeking an intern to assist in expanding its presence on the more popular social networks.

All internship applicants must be currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs, able to work with minimum supervision and commit to a minimum of 20 hours per week to be considered. Applicants should have excellent written and spoken English skills, strong computer skills (including Microsoft Word and Excel) and good interpersonal and organizational skills. Interns receive a stipend of up to $50.00 per month toward the costs of traveling to and from InterAction.

Collectively, InterActions 167 members work in every developing country. The U.S. public shows its support for this work through contributions to InterAction members totaling around $6 billion annually. InterAction leverages the impact of this private support by advocating for the expansion of U.S. government investments and by insisting that policies and programs are responsive to the realities of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable populations.

To Apply:

Submit a cover letter and resume to intern@InterAction.org, with Social Networking Intern in the subject line. Due to the large number of anticipated applications, only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No phone calls, please.

For more information on InterActions internship program, visit http://www.interaction.org/internship

The Progress of Online Collaboration Tools, Sort Of

nospam@example.com (David Strelneck) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:02:45 -0400

In 1999, while reflecting on work we'd done for the US Environmental Protection Agency, some colleagues and I had an idea for a project coordination web page where project documents, a schedule, and staff contacts could easily be listed. Having worked with teams involving government workers plus private sector contractors, I thought this idea offered huge opportunity for efficiency increases, simply by creating a shared space which different members of the same team could all access easily.

We developed the new tool quickly, and it worked well for those we introduced it to. In fact, refinements and enhancements led in part to Forum One's development of the popular ProjectSpaces online project coordination tool, which anyone can start using today with the click of a button.

But in this summer of 2008, nine years later, I am reminded that much of the huge potential for efficiency gains in public sector work remains untapped. I've participated recently in three unrelated meetings that hit me over the head with this point one in New York with program planners from agencies like UNICEF and the World Health Organization; one in Peru with a group of water management entrepreneurs; and one in California's Sierra Nevada mountains where small town residents make local land-use planning decisions. About half-way through each meeting, someone suggested that the group use internet tools to coordinate the information flow and planning. And, after a quick round of affirmations and nodding of heads, each group then went back to the business at hand, and the idea was never mentioned again.

At least there is general awareness of the potential for these efficiencies now. But there are also many perceptions (and even some realities!) which often defeat the idea. Every new tool requires time to learn. People are busy, and overwhelmed with glitzy web ideas. And frankly, in the eyes of many novice users, these web systems appear too complicated. Which is a conundrum, because as new people do start using such systems, they tend to want more complex additional features and functions added quickly, yet those same complexities scared them away initially.

Some tools are now truly easy enough to adopt to make this crowd happy, I believe, but a challenge remains in how to bring this idea to life at the moment it arises, pretty consistently these days, in these kinds of multi-agency program and policy meetings.

Job Opportunity: Web Internship / Pew Environment Group

nospam@example.com (Chris Wolz) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:44:00 -0400

Our friends at the new Pew Environment Group (recently formed when the National Environmental Trust joined with Pew's environment programs) are looking for a web intern. Will be a great opportunity!

Web Internship, Pew Environment Group

The Pew Environment Group is seeking an online communications intern for the fall semester. This full-time job with the Web and Communications team is a great opportunity for somebody who is just starting out in the field.

Duties and responsibilities include online work on multiple campaign websites and support in developing potential new sites. PEG web interns typically work on dozens of different projects as well as participate in communications strategy discussions, planning meetings, brainstorming sessions and occasional training workshops. We're looking for somebody who's quick on his or her feet, adaptable, learns fast and has good attention to detail. Specific skills (html, design, etc.) are useful but not essential; some can be learned on the job. What's more important is a positive attitude and strong initiative.

We offer a competitive internship hourly rate. Please visit www.pewtrusts.org to learn more about Pew, view the full job description and apply online.

Come Join Our New LinkedIn Group for Global Health Professionals

nospam@example.com (Suzanne Rainey) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:12:41 -0400

I've just become co-chair of a new LinkedIn Group for professionals working in global health, called Global Public Health.

I suspect the summer will be quiet but we'll ramp up in a month or two and use this group as a way to tell each other about interesting news and events and to stay in touch in general.

If you'd like to join us, please do! Here's a link: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/120372/28CBE05C8ACF

Online courses (and collaboration) to save energy, money, and environment

nospam@example.com (Chris Wolz) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:52:14 -0400

I've seen some recent news about the huge rise in enrollment in online college classes concurrent with the rise in gasoline prices. The articles report students saying that rising gas prices are a big concern in their deciding to seek online courses.

I think this shows the coming together of a few trends - a "perfect storm" of the increased quality of online course software in the past few years, increasing online curriculum offerings - more courses offered by a widening array of reputable schools, peoples' increasing comfort in using online collaboration tools, and the dramatic rise in gasoline prices of the past year.

As in education, I think we'll see businesses, governments, and other non-commercial organizations increase their usage of online tools for collaboration to save travel costs, and also to seek to reduce the climate change impacts of business operations. More on that another time...

Some interesting quotes about online courses:

At Villanova University, the engineering school has seen a 40 percent increase in online enrollment this summer even though summer enrollments typically stay flat.

"We've attributed it to the huge gas prices," said Sean O'Donnell, who runs the engineering school's distance-education program. Associated Press.

In the NYT:

At Bristol Community College in Fall River, Mass., for instance, online enrollments were up 114 percent this summer over last, and half the students queried cited gas costs or some other transportation obstacle as a reason for signing up to study over the Internet, said April Bellafiore, an assistant dean there.

Online classes filled up immediately, Ms. Bellafiore said. It blew my mind. New York Times.

And in the Chronicle:

I would prefer to actually go to school and be there to do it," says Ms. LaBadie, a single mother working toward a degree in medical administration. "But it's hard enough paying tuition, much less the price of gas. Chronicle of Higher Education.

Job Opportunity: USIP Online Communications Specialist

nospam@example.com (Kurt Voelker) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:06:04 -0400

Our client The US Institute of Peace is looking for a talented online communications specialist to direct and manage their web sites and intranet. The best candidate is that rare mix of a strategic web thinker that can also manage day-to-day operations. We know alot of Influence readers fit the bill! You can check out the full job description here.

Next America is Looking to Web to Connect 100,000 Young Policy Professionals

nospam@example.com (Kurt Voelker) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:43:09 -0400

Are you under 30 and care about the challenges facing the world? The Center for Strategic and International Studies is looking for 100,000 young professionals to set a global agenda for the future - and its using the web to make it happen.

Yesterday Collin Powell helped kick off Next America, a project designed to engage future American leaders in a substantive foreign policy debate.

Speaking to a crowd of over 300 Powell said it is the youth who best understand the digital information-age we live in and have the most capacity to use that understanding to shape positive change. He added that information access, transparency, and 'connectedness' have substantially altered the international policy landscape. He challenged the group to set an agenda focused on 3 key areas: economics and wealth creation, energy, and education (you can watch the recorded video of the event here).

Liz Sullivan, the project's co-director, wants that debate to happen online. She has organized an amazing group of young thinkers, bloggers, and leaders to make up the first set of Next America fellows. They are already using NextAmerica.CSIS.org to debate and discuss smart power, energy and climate, economic integration, defense and security, and human rights.

Over the next several months the Next America web site will host the ongoing conversation through weekly debates, blogging, video commentary, and good old social networking. All of this online activity will culminate with a summit in Washington DC to finalize the agenda before the next president takes office.

So if you're under 30, and have something to say, go join the debate!

We're pleased to have helped Liz and her team launch the site, and for the opportunity to be there for Colin Powell's address. Congratulations on your successful launch!

Blogging in Wild Africa: Gorillas, Leopards, and Your Coffee

nospam@example.com (David Strelneck) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:44:02 -0400

We're excited to see fascinating commentary and photos rolling in on the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)'s new blog. These real-world, real-time testimonials connect global audiences to very on-the-ground experiences in rural Africa.

We worked with AWF to plan this effort, so it is particularly useful to learn lessons along the way. After launching this WordPress blog in April, AWF dispatched staffer Paul Thomson, with laptop and Blackberry in hand, to tackle the technology, staffing, and storytelling challenges of reporting live from the field rather than from the home office.

Eight weeks later, Paul has sent us the following insights:

I had no idea people would be so interested in my stories! It is been really encouraging. ExOfficio clothing company has even taken notice, and we're exploring ways to possibly work together.

Technology challenges inhibit the ability to post stories while they're still fresh in mind. For example, right now I'm in a really cool Lion research camp in Samburu District, Kenya. Would love to post but, in fact, I'm going to hike up a rocky hill just to see if I can get Blackberry connection to send this email.

We didn't think AWF field staff would like it, but many of them now want to start blogging more!

Uploading photos to WordPress is difficult when the remote internet connection is slow and cuts off frequently.

And, this work also highlights an important challenge many of us face, how to make sure authentic staff blogging (genuine voices from the front lines!) stay in balance with the more formal communications and reporting responsibilities our organizations face. AWF seems to be doing a great job so far.

Good luck Paul and AWF team! We'll be watching.